Despite all the hype about the Armistice Day centenary ceremonies in the military garrison town of Townsville , two major memorials-the site containing the roll of honour for WWl in the railway station, and the Victory in the Pacific fountain - continue to be neglected .
On Thursday , November 8,three days before the centenary , in the railway building , with its roll of honour , above, the floor was in need of a sweep and wash , stains and imprints of footwear , scuff marks visible on the greasy tiles.
A short distance away, the Victory in the Pacific Fountain , below, was dry, rubbish visible in both chambers, an underwater light missing .The fountain is right next to the number one site on Townsville's civic pride trail .
Both these memorials are a short distance from the Townsville Bulletin. The paper runs a regular military section which incredibly has not caught up with the long running neglect of local war memorials , including ones inside the Anzac Memorial Park , pointed out from time to time by this blog .
A recent article in the paper raised the need for Australia to have a national war cemetery like America's at Arlington . Townsville's civic, military and media organisations are repeatedly revealed as being incapable of picking up the obvious , glaring fact that all of the war memorials in the city are not kept in good shape, checked daily , offensive rubbish removed , illegible plaques promptly fixed .
